It is easy to lose heart with your social media. Sometimes you can put in hours and hours of effort and not feel like you are getting anywhere, or worse that you are going backwards. You might be losing followers, your engagement might be down, you might not be getting work or sales coming in. What do you do? How do you get your mojo back?
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| It's normal to get disillusioned with social media, but you can start to enjoy them again |
Change How You Feel About Social Media
You Are Not Alone
First let me reassure you that we all struggle at times. It doesn’t matter if it’s Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, whatever the platform it’s absolutely ok to want a break. It is normal to have times when you just aren’t feeling it or you don’t have anything to say. Even those people whose accounts you look at and think "wow" feel that way at times. Take a break if you need to and follow these suggestions to help you fall back in love with social media.
Go Back To Your Why
I’ve talked before about how important it is to know your why. Revisiting your motivations and reminding yourself of them when you are feeling disillusioned can be really valuable. If you have never documented your why then now is a good time to do it. Why are you on social media? What excites you about it? What do you hate? Do you need to be active on every platform? Can you repurpose content to save time? Refocus your approach around your why and get yourself moving forwards again.
A Case Study (of Me)
My personal Instagram account had been hovering around the same follower number for some time, persistently refusing to go up to the next milestone. On top of that my recent engagement and reach was down, way down. I had less likes on most of my posts than years before when my following was much lower.
I felt I had two options: I could focus on growth and apply the tried and tested strategies that I knew would grow my account or I could have fun. At this point my Instagram account isn’t a priority for me professionally so instead of investing time into it that I would rather spend elsewhere I chose to have fun.
I’m not worrying about creating amazing content, I’m just being present. I am ensuring I consistently show up and keep the account going until I have time to focus on it, but I’m not worrying about the results. It has allowed me a huge amount of freedom and I can put up photos I love which I know won’t do that well great because I have taken the pressure off. If my most amazing posts aren't going to do well then I should post for me not guess what my audience will like best. Yes it’s still a little hard to see the numbers, but I’m able to shrug it off remembering that my strategy right now is about growing other areas.
This wont be the right approach for many of you, but the point is that what you do on social media is about meeting your needs and goals and the approach should be personal to you.
Look at the Data
It’s important to take regular snap shots of your performance. The specific measures you track will depend on your goals and priorities but I would recommend making them wide ranging. On Instagram for instance I record follower numbers, average likes, comments and reach. On other platforms it is usually number of views, likes and followers. I know that I can’t focus on growing every platform at the same time so I’m happy for some accounts to plateau while I focus on others.
Right now I am loving TikTok as I find it the most fun, most rewarding and easiest platform to grow on, but even on TikTok it is only when I look back at the end of the month that I realise the progress. Day to day it is easy to be caught up on why one video only had 300 views when last week I had one with 30000 views, but by tracking stats you will see that over time there is growth. It might not be on every measure, but it will be there.
Audit your Accounts
Try looking at your accounts objectively like a stranger might. What do you see? I recommend getting someone else to give feedback on your accounts as they will be less emotionally involved, but aim to review them regularly yourself too.
Can you honestly say you are posting good content? To grow and get high engagement content needs to be: useful, relatable, interesting or inspiring. It’s ok to post whatever you want to post, but if others aren’t getting value from your content you will not grow.
Are you being consistent? Both in terms of posting content in a niche (your likely audience for each post needs to be similar) and in showing up and posting content. That doesn’t mean you have to post every day on your Instagram grid (quality beats quantity) but you should aim to post on each account at least once a week and be on your stories daily on your main platform.
Are you being social? You should be replying to messages and comments and engaging with other people (your current followers and potential new ones). Having conversations is important, it helps build engagement, but most importantly it makes it more enjoyable for you.
Remember Your Voice
One of the most common reasons people get disillusioned with social media is they compare themselves with others. You might see similar accounts with higher engagement and think "why them not me?". You might see other people's content and think that you can't produce anything as good because they are more talented, more beautiful, have a better home, better opportunity. Stop. You are not them and no one else is you. You have something unique to contribute, a voice and opinion that no one else has. Don't try to copy others, just be you.
Why them not you? Well they might be faking their engagement, they might be putting more effort in, they might be using a social media manager, they might have been lucky. That doesn't mean that your contribution or journey is any less valuable. If you find that comparison causes you to doubt yourself then you should check out The Comparison Cure by the lovely Lucy Sheridan (affiliate link). She also does mentoring and courses so if you prefer a more interactive approach check out her socials.
Review Who You Follow
Do the accounts you follow fill you with joy? Do they inspire you? Do they make you feel happy, supported, motivated, do they make you laugh? Whatever it is you are looking for from Instagram or whatever social media platform you are focusing on, make sure you are seeing the content that fills that need for you. That might mean unfollowing or muting accounts that make you feel bad, it might mean using hashtags to find new accounts you will love. Opening the app should feel like walking into a room full of friends, you should want to be there. There is content to appeal to everyone on every platform. Find what appeals to you and you will enjoy being there and that will encourage you to post more too.
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